Mach E Charging outside preferred times

[Jonnybignote]

I've read a few posts on this and I gather that it probably is just the way it has to be. It's still irritating, unless I'm missing the point and someone can show me the error of my ways.

I'm having my wife plug in at home on the 240v whenever she gets out of the car so that it can precondition for her departure at 7am, on the 2 days a week she has to be physically in the office. I'm on TOU and so the car is set to charge only for off peak. I've now caught it on 3 occasions charging outside of "preferred charge times" at my peak rate with SCE, which is stupidly expensive (4pm-9pm). She doesn't need a lot of range to get to where she's going.

I assume it's because "preferred charging time" is overridden by the car's supposed need to get to my default 90% charge by the set departure time on those two days.

I've now turned off departure times, which I assume will take care of the issue - but this is lame. I like the idea of the battery being conditioned, and also it's nice for her to have a warm cabin to get into.

Can there not also be a firm "never charge between these hours" setting also, for folks like myself that have utility billing setup this way?

I've seen people suggest smart plugs to get around a hard "no" charging time, but there doesn't seem to be any for 240v

Any insights gratefully received.

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[kens]

Haven't been able to set up home charging yet for myself, but my understanding is that with the right charger you can block out times, only supplying power the hours you set.

 

[Murse-In-Airy]

There is no way to block out a certain time. And I haven’t seen a 240V smart plug to shut off the outlet. Best to reduce your maximum charge setting (which acts as a minimum as you pointed out) so that it can be achieved during your preferred TOU. If you don’t need to add charge to the battery, and are just plugging in so the wife has a warm cabin, remote starting can accomplish this. You note you like preconditioning the battery, but I find this only helpful when I really need a warm battery to get every mile of range possible, and a waste of electricity the rest of the time.

 

[hybrid2bev]

I've read a few posts on this and I gather that it probably is just the way it has to be. It's still irritating, unless I'm missing the point and someone can show me the error of my ways.

I'm having my wife plug in at home on the 240v whenever she gets out of the car so that it can precondition for her departure at 7am, on the 2 days a week she has to be physically in the office. I'm on TOU and so the car is set to charge only for off peak. I've now caught it on 3 occasions charging outside of "preferred charge times" at my peak rate with SCE, which is stupidly expensive (4pm-9pm). She doesn't need a lot of range to get to where she's going.

I assume it's because "preferred charging time" is overridden by the car's supposed need to get to my default 90% charge by the set departure time on those two days.

I've now turned off departure times, which I assume will take care of the issue - but this is lame. I like the idea of the battery being conditioned, and also it's nice for her to have a warm cabin to get into.

Can there not also be a firm "never charge between these hours" setting also, for folks like myself that have utility billing setup this way?

I've seen people suggest smart plugs to get around a hard "no" charging time, but there doesn't seem to be any for 240v

Any insights gratefully received.

What are your preferred charge times set to? If the window is not long enough that could be an issue. (Increase your charge window)

What SOC are you at when plugged in? If it’s too low the car may not think it can reach your target on time. (Plug in every day)

Does your charge history show “home”? If the car thinks it’s not at your preferred location it won’t adhere to the schedule. (Don’t worry about the address number, it’s more about the location on the map. Add your charging location again)

If you buy a smart EVSE you can limit the charge times on that. Probably better to buy one because the mobile EVSE that comes with the car is terrible for long term use (many failures have been posted).

 

[AKgrampy]

I think there is more going on here and we could use a bit more information such as what EVSE you are using and what amp setting. Mine charges at 32 amps or 7kW an hour. If you are charging at 32 amps then from 9PM to 7AM that would be 70kW daily or between 140 to 200 miles. If that is not the case then there is no reason your car should charge outside the programed window. Also you can get a smart EVSE that would act like a switch and only charge during a certain window.

 

[Mach T]

Not sure where you live, but I hooked up with Detroit Edison and Ford who have a joint program to not allow my Mach-e to charge during peak hours while at home. Also have a smart plug as a backup since I charge at 120 volts.

 

[me-stang]

I had this happen for few days within the first year of ownership.
In that case the car didn't have its location correct.
My preferred charging was set to a location, home, but the car "thought" it was elsewhere.

Navigation screen showed the car still at the last store my wife visited, so it started charging when plugged in.

After a couple days it corrected itself.

 

[Lonesparrow67]

I had this happen for few days within the first year of ownership.
In that case the car didn't have its location correct.
My preferred charging was set to a location, home, but the car "thought" it was elsewhere.

Navigation screen showed the car still at the last store my wife visited, so it started charging when plugged in.

After a couple days it corrected itself.

I also had this happen once, a couple of weeks ago...
Removing and re-adding my home location (which was a PITA in and of itself), seems to have corrected it, and it's been working fine since then...

I'm not sure if it was a temporary glitch, or I actually broke it myself (it just happen to coincide with about the same time that I renamed the Bluetooth connection to the vehicle in the SYNC connectivity settings, not sure if that was a coincidence or not...), but in any case, working OK for now...

 

[Jonnybignote]

Thanks all for the great replies.
Yes, I am just using the EVSE that came with the car, on a 240v 40amp circuit, so I assume charging at 32amps - no problems with it yet, but then I've only had this particular model 6 months. I'm in Southern CA with SCE.

Preferred times are 10am-4pm as I'm micromanaging loads to maximise solar savings. I'm also just making the point, that outside of the 2 days she goes into her office 25 miles away, the car does very little mileage, as we both work mostly from home.
The home location is set correctly.

SOC probably around 50% or so on the occasions this has happened.
It might be nice to have the option in the software for the preferred times to be set to absolute, then I could just get her into the habit of plugging in every time she gets out.
I haven't had a problem with charging schedules since my first gen 2021 base model and all it's teething issues. I do like having the car always close to 90% so that it's ready for anything.

I wasn't using departure times prior to this issue as we never had anything in a set routine, and she was 100% from home - I'd just plug in as necessary and the preferred charging times were obeyed.

I do take onboard about preconditioning and will nix it, maybe just using the night before a road trip. A different smart charger could do it too, but overkill for what I need.

All in all, it sounds like the software is functioning as "designed" and I was just working on false assumptions. Unless anyone has another idea, I'll just drop the cabin prep and she can hit the remote start 5 mins before she leaves... I know I'm not doing it for her as she leaves at 7am - hell no!

Thanks folks

 

[ChrisO]

This is interesting, we don't use pre-conditioning, so we never hit this (but I did just test it and see the same as you do. And yes, a different adapter would work, mainly because you setup the schedule in their app not Ford's. I had one that I returned when I realized I could get 7Kwh out of the one that got for free, instead of 9.6Kwh for $400).

On the use of a smart switch, when we first got our car, we were charging it on 120V. As it turns out, on 120V it completely ignores the time-of-day settings. So, I used a smart switch for that. Later I found that our garage door was on the same circuit, so we needed to add a new circuit, and decided that we might as well go with 240V. Did nothing more than changing the plug/cable that came with the Ford Adapter we got for free from the 120V to 240V and the time-of-day then was obeyed, which is a very good thing because switching 120V 15 amp is quite different from switching 240V 32 amp. And when I looked there weren't any 240V smart switches.

 

[Lonesparrow67]

I may have spoken too soon, lol, we'll see later tonight....

Just plugged my car in...the local time here on East Coast, US is 6:48pm....
Preferred charge times are set from 11pm-6am...

"Waiting to charge at 6PM..." ?

Actual preferred times are correct in the schedule (both in app, and in the car)....

Not sure what's going on with FordPass lastely....another server glitch, perhaps?

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